Captain Stiliyan Petrov has revealed Villa are fighting fit as the finish-line for fourth enters sight and urged – ‘Don’t let the dream slip away now.’

Sunday’s 1-0 win over derby rivals Birmingham moved the claret and blues into fifth, level on points with fourth-placed Tottenham having played one more game.

Villa have now claimed 13 points from a possible 15 since their 7-1 drubbing by Chelsea and Petrov revealed their fitness levels have improved since John Terry’s jibe they fade in games.

This Saturday’s penultimate game of the campaign at fellow top-four hopefuls Manchester City now represents a mouthwatering do-or-die clash and Petrov has demanded one last push from his team-mates.

He said: “This is the closest we’ve got and we shouldn’t let it slip away, because we’ve worked so hard this season to get there.

“If someone had said to us before the start of the season that with two games to go we’d still be in with a chance of fourth then we’d have taken it. We are there now and we will try to make sure we take it.

“People have been talking about whether we get tired but in the last few games we’ve shown we are getting even fitter – our stats and the way we’ve been playing is showing differently.

“We now need one last push from all of us. The fans have been great to us. We hope in the end we will give them something to cheer.”

With sixth-placed City then having to face Spurs at Eastlands on Wednesday week, the race for fourth looks certain to go down to the wire and Petrov has predicted a thrilling climax.

He added: “I said four or five weeks ago when people were writing us off that there’d be plenty of twists and turns and that’s what happened.

“Fair play to Tottenham, they took their chances in two games that many people didn’t expect them to win against Arsenal and Chelsea.

“We’re still in the mix and it’s up to us now. We’ll probably have to wait for other teams to drop points but it’s up to us to try to win our games. We’re going in the right way and we’ll see what happens in the end.

“If we can make it it will be great.”